"Check your street number"

While the houses on the eastern end of this slender Greenwich Village Street are beautiful in the traditional Greenwich village manner - nineteenth-century brick, wrought-iron balustrades, trees shading these out-of-the-way blocks - the charm factor of the neighborhood drops precipitously as you head further west, approaching the blare and bustle of the West Side Highway (although cyclists will find much to enjoy on the riverside bike path - if they can brave the traffic and find a way across!) . In the eastern end of the street, you're near the popular (and historic) Cherry Lane Theatre, lovely dining venues like the Cornelia Street Cafe, Snack Tavern, and the Hudson Clearwater Restaurant, the scene dries up just a few minutes' walk west. Overall this is a great street if you're in the "Greenwich Village" part of it, but gets less pleasant the closer you are to the highway. It's still only a few minutes' walk of a difference overall, though - so even at its worst Morton Street has a fabulous location.

"Little whisp of a beautiful street"

Morton street only runs for about 2 blocks but they are a pretty lovely few blocks (pretty much all of the West Village is). There is a building at Hudson that is particularly stunning -- and, apparently, a lot of Hollywood seems to agree. It was built in the mid 19th century and has been used as a residence in Working Girl, Autumn in New York, and The Night We Never Met. Directly next door is where John Belushi used to live (until his death). Across the street is Henrietta Hudson -- this seems to be the only Lesbian bar that you can count on people knowing about. Next door to Henrietta (or behind, rather) is where the Rosenbergs lived and did they're all of their spying and conspiring. Next door to that is where Henry Roth. 59 Morton is one of the prettiest Federal-style houses in the neighborhood. It's positively gorgeous. The corner of Bedford and Morton is a place with an interesting history. It used to be Shopsin's general store. It was really popular within the village but the owner was very wary of strangers. A writer for the New Yorker wrote about the place but failed to give the address because he didn't want to be banned. 4 Morton used the be the Paradise Inn -- it was a really famous Speakeasy. It's so sad writing about these super cool things that no longer exist. Unfortunately, there isn't anything noteworthy there now. But, next door is pretty noteworthy: Risotteria. It is a risotto place that actually does live up to its name and hype. It's also very cozy and has a great bustly energy. The street ends at Bleecker but that's an awful lot of history packed into one tiny area. That's why New York is so cool.

"Forgettable"

Morton Street starts out at Bleecker Street, and then does a pretty little curve, before it crosses Hudson Street, and then finishes off at the West Side Highway. It's at a very lowermost part of Greenwich Village, so the residential brownstones at its inception are gorgeous, with the small, intimate feel typical for Greenwich Village streets, and even ivy growing up the sides of buildings. Unfortunately, the idyllic charm doesn't last long, because Morton Street then crosses the behemoth of traffic which is Hudson Street, and suffers from the attendant noise and depressing landscape. Suddenly the brownstones disappear and all you're left with are freight loading docks, pretty much, and huge, faceless concrete slabs for office buildings. There's the Manhattan Developmental Disabilities Center, who claim they are “putting people first.” But when you look around at the bleak, roaring impersonal place that Morton Street becomes between Hudson and the West Side Highway, you have to wonder why they're “putting people” so far away from all humanity, out in the most depressing boondocks you can find. There's a lovely view of the river to reward you for going all the way west, but you really could skip it rather than brave the very dangerous West Side Highway traffic.